Is a Detox Diet For You?

Everyone from celebrities to the other moms in the carpool lane seem to be talking about one detox diet or another. From a homemade cayenne pepper mixture to simple juice fast, people everywhere, especially women are trying to cleanse their symptoms and possibly lose weight at the same time.

Detox advocates say it is healthy to rid the body of toxins. Critics say detox regimes are just another type of fad diet whose adverse effects can be unhealthy.

In an article for WebMD, Dawn Jackson-Blatner, a dietitian at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Wellness Institute and American Dietetic Association spokeswoman said, "these diets can give people a false sense of security, a feeling that they've been protective of their health. Then, when the diet's over, they go back to their normal way of eating."

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Later in that same article, Peter Pressman, MD, an internal medicine specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles agreed that the science behind the detox diet is flawed because “the body already has multiple systems in place -- including the liver, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract -- that do a perfectly good job of eliminating toxins from the body within hours of consumption.”

However, there are some health advocates who say a gentle form of a detox can be a good thing, and in fact is quite the opposite of a fad as humans have been doing it for hundreds of years.

In an interview for this article, holistic nutritionist Michelle Butler, says “the whole detox idea has been popularized in the media as a favorite celebrity weight loss regime. But many ancient medicinal systems use detoxification as a vital healing technique for chronic conditions. For example, Native Americans use fasting and sweat lodges for purification, and Ayurveda (the medicinal system in India) uses herbs, massage, sweating, and various other methods to detox and cure the body of many ailments.”

Ms. Butler went on to say that most detox methods are extremely stressful on the body, and aren’t sustainable with today’s fast past living.

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FYI: I have tried a simple 2 day fast: dilute lemonade only. 1/4 c lemon juice, preferably fresh, 1/4 c sugar, and 6 cups of water. Just sip on it all day. When it is gone, drink only water.

I have only raw food for a couple of days before (apples and broccoli), and a couple of days after. Love how light and fresh I feel after this, and the feeling keeps me from overeating for seveal weeks. (low cost, simple)

PS: perhaps a typo on page 1 of the article: fast-PACED life, not PAST

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Hey Conny, Out of all the foods and drinks out there the best is water. No matter how much you have in a day has no harm what so ever. I know a really great drink which is pomegranate juice. That has excellent source of antioxidant. I usually buy them for the holiday Rosh Hashanah and now I'm buying them regularly also. Eating healthy and having plenty of water is the best.

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I know some fruits that are great for intoxicating the body such as blueberries and all kinds of berrys, but the best thing as Melissa6666 said is the water...Drinking plenty of water is the best way to help your body fight the fats and the poison cells in it.

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